Talking about markets: deals, stocks and rates
By SuperdayReps · Michigan Ross Undergrad | Wharton MBA · ex-Citi | ex-Greenhill · Former Head Mentor at a Leading IB Prep Service
12 min read · updated October 14, 2026
Somewhere in most interviews, usually after the fit questions and before or between the technicals, the conversation turns outward. "Tell me about a deal you have been following." "Pitch me a stock." "What is the most interesting thing going on in markets right now?"
These questions feel open ended, which is exactly why candidates fumble them. There is no formula to recite, so people either freeze or ramble. But they are among the most preparable questions you will get, because you choose the material weeks in advance. Nobody is going to ask you about a deal you have never heard of. They ask you to pick one.
What these questions are really testing
Not whether you can predict anything. An interviewer who has been in the industry for ten years cannot predict markets either, and knows it.
They are testing three things:
- Do you actually follow this? Banking is a job spent inside the news. Someone who wants it should already be reading about deals for fun, or at least out of curiosity.
- Can you think like a banker about it? Not "this company is cool" but "here is why the buyer paid this price, and here is what has to go right for it to work."
- Can you hold a view and defend it? Two or three follow-ups in, are you still standing on something, or were you reciting a headline?
Depth beats coverage. One deal you can discuss for five minutes is worth more than five deals you can name. The interviewer will always go one layer deeper than your first answer, so the question that matters is how many layers you have, not how many topics.
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Frequently asked
- How do you answer 'tell me about a deal you have followed'?
- In four beats and about ninety seconds: what happened (who bought whom, for how much, at what multiple, paid how), why the buyer did it, what could go wrong, and your own view. Pick a deal you have actually read about more than once, and check its status the morning of the interview, because a deal that closed, collapsed or got blocked last week is the one detail an interviewer will know and you will not.
- What should I say if I am asked to pitch a stock?
- Name the company and the call first, then two reasons the market is mispricing it, a rough valuation versus its peers, a catalyst that will close the gap, and the main risk. Pick a company you know well rather than the most famous one, and know its rough share price, market cap and multiple, because those are the first three follow-ups.
- Do I need a forecast for where interest rates are going?
- No. Interviewers are not testing whether you can call the Fed. They want to hear that you know the direction the central bank has been moving, what the market is currently pricing, which data would change that, and what it means for deals. A clear account of the mechanism beats a confident prediction every time.
- What if the interviewer asks a follow-up I cannot answer?
- Say so in one sentence, then reason from what you do know. 'I have not seen the synergy breakdown, but in a deal like this I would expect most of it to come from overlapping plants and procurement' is a strong answer. Inventing a number is the one move you cannot recover from, because bankers often know the deal better than you do.